As Luck Would Have It
by Mia-Zeklos
Summary: When Draco finally finds a new assistant, it's someone he hadn't been looking forward to seeing again - and yet, as he gets to spend a bit of time with said person, things start to change for the ere's plot if you squint really hard.


_Written for Allons-y Lovelies's Sherlock Competition with the prompt "write about a healer at St. Mungo's" _and also _written for WitAngerandBravery's Quote Challenge on the Harry Potter Challenges Forum with the quote "And sometimes I wonder if my cousin is really an ape in disguise, but I don't let it bother me too much."_

**Author's Notes: So, after a long absence from the Harry Potter fanfiction scene – and the fanfiction scene in general – here's a little something for you. I know it's nothing great and that there are things in it that are downright stupid - like the ending or the title - but it's been a tough few months, and I'm just getting back to it, so…**

**Reviews are appreciated, just like always. :)**

Thompson entered Draco's office with a bang for the third time today and while it was starting to get irritating, it did not surprise him in the slightest. He sighed.

"What is it this time?" He asked half-heartedly.

"I found someone." Thompson said, slamming the door behind his back excitedly. "I found you a new assistant?" he specified carefully at Draco's blank stare.

"Did you?" Suddenly, the young Healer started paying more attention. Since last week, when his assistant Claire had given up after seeing the victim of a particularly rough accident with a wand dropped into a cauldron, Draco had been looking for someone new. He hunted a small piece of parchment amongst the mess that reigned on his desk, and took his quill. "Details?"

"She's twenty-one, born on 16th March. A Slytherin during her school years."

"Name?"

"Greeengrass."

"Oh Merlin." Draco's hand came to a halt. The last thing he wanted was having someone from school around. "Astoria or Daphne?" He asked and then answered his own question. "Astoria, of course." She was the one younger than him.

"You know her?" Thompson asked; his brown eyes lighting up with interest. "Can you introduce us, by any chance. You know, I think I saw her down at the reception and she seemed really pretty–"

Draco sighed yet again. Greg Thompson was a few years older than him and while he was absolutely brilliant, he was also quite exhausting sometimes. Draco liked him, mostly because they both truly enjoyed their job and it was easy to work with him.

"Yeah." He murmured and tried to remember anything about her. A good student? Probably. Better than her sister, anyway. Bright enough? Most likely. Strong enough? Strangely, yes.

"Yeah." He repeated, louder this time. "Okay, tell the receptionist to let her in."

"Are you okay?" Draco asked, rather awkwardly. Behind the lime green mask that covered half of her face, Astoria nodded, her eyes slowly seeming to calm down. He wasn't entirely sure, though, so he tried to hide the sight of the kid's bloody arm from his new assistant. "Bring me that potion over there, will you?" he asked, mostly to distract her, and tried to wipe most of the blood in the meantime.

"Don't worry about me, Malfoy." The young witch said in a way that suggested years under Pansy Parkinson's wing, and he closed his eyes briefly before bracing himself for a very long day.

Surprisingly enough, by the end of it Draco was rather satisfied with the work they'd got done. Astoria was clever and efficient and could deal with a significant amount of things in no time. She didn't ask stupid questions – or any questions, really, since she seemed to have learned everything about the hospital itself in about twenty minutes – and wasn't scared of blood and injuries. Sometimes she made jokes in her quiet, delicate way and the more time he spent with her, the more he seemed to enjoy her company.

Draco had been pretty sure that people from school would only bring memories from his last year there – and those were the ones he had taken a great effort storing into the back in his mind for the rest of his life. He had thought that, after everything he had done to become someone new – and, preferably, someone with no past – an old classmate would ruin it all.

For what was probably been the first time in his life, though, Draco had actually been lucky – Astoria had proved him wrong. And, just a few days later, he wasn't even nervous around her anymore. She seemed to know what he needed and what he wanted without him ever saying anything. Even the last doubt he might have had about it vanished in the early morning on the fifth day when she brought him hot chocolate.

"How did you know about that?" Draco asked as he took a sip from it. He couldn't recall mentioning anything.

Astoria shrugged and for the fist time in a week, he was not too busy to actually take the time and notice her. She had long, dark auburn hair that was – as far as he knew – naturally formed into large curls. Her skin was even paler than his and she was on the short side. Her eyes were bright green and always so alive; he could see them constantly wandering around the room.

"I sort of figured it out. You don't look like a coffee person." There was the slightest pause. "And I've seen you drinking it at school."

"Now that's what I call sixth sense." Draco muttered into his cup, trying not to show that he was impressed by her memory, and Astoria chuckled quietly, which immediately brought a smile on his face as well. He'd never really tried making jokes unless they were feel-bad ones, and he found that he might rather enjoy making this certain someone laugh.

"You're very different from your sister." He pointed out, a little out of nowhere. He hadn't spent that much time with Daphne back at school, but from what he could remember, she was the typical person for her family – never happy about anything she got, constantly busy gossiping about people and engaging in small talk with anyone she found suitable.

"She spent more time with Father's family when she was little." Astoria fiddled with one of the ties of her uniform absently. "I grew up with Mother's parents. I suppose we were just raised differently."

"That must be it." Draco wasn't entirely sure where this conversation was going, but he was uncomfortable enough with silence to keep going. "And what about your other relatives? Did you grow up all alone?"

Astoria snorted.

"Hardly. My aunts were always there; I've got plenty of them. One of them even had a husband and lived in the mansion with him and their kids."

"At least you had someone your age to talk to." Draco said as he remembered the long, sleepless nights sometime sin the Malfoy Manor year ago, when he was too old to sneak into his parents's bed and too young to sleep calmly despite the fact that he was all alone on the floor in a centuries-old house.

"Not that they were of much use." Astoria took a small sip of her tea as she found a quill on the desk, took her records from the drawer and stared filling the fields that Thompson had left blank. "You haven't seen my aunt's husband, have you? It took her years to convince me that he was friendly – and actually human. And sometimes I still wonder if my cousin is really an ape in disguise, but I don't let it bother me too much."

At that, Draco felt his smile getting broader and he was just about to respond when a healer none of them knew came to tell them that they're needed on the second floor.

With the smile still on her face, Astoria left her cup of tea on Draco's desk and stood up, glancing at him.

"Back to work?"

"Unfortunately," the young wizard replied, even though at the moment, he couldn't see anything unfortunate at all.


End file.
